Cubs' owner Ricketts at Techstars Demo Day: 'We're going to get a relief pitcher out of this room'

A look at the 10 startup companies that pitched at Techstars Demo Day

Cubs owner Tom Ricketts on the importance of building for the future

Perhaps he was looking to warm his hands around the fire of optimism that seems to burn at Chicago’s annual Techstars Demo Day. Or maybe Cubs owner Tom Ricketts thought one of the rookie companies was developing an app for winning baseball.

“We’re going to get a relief pitcher out of this room,” Ricketts joked as he kicked off the fifth annual showcase of entrepreneurial talent Wednesday, before 10 startups showed their stuff after 13 weeks of training at the 1871-based accelerator.

Ricketts shared with a crowd of about 400 entrepreneurs and investors at the House of Blues his vision for the Cubs, touching on his experience starting InCapital LLC, a securities and investment banking firm, and offering wisdom for entrepreneurs.

He said business startups must have a compelling vision that understands the pain in the market, something Ricketts said he feels every day when Cubs fans tell him to “please win a World Series before I die.”

“I like to think we’re a 130-year-old startup,” he said of the Cubs. “The team has never been managed in a way that really built for the future.”

Companies must have a strategy, Ricketts said. And he said they need the courage to stick to it in the face of critics and doubters, which he and the Cubs know well.

“You can never do it quickly,” he said of the process of building quality that will last. “Every shortcut will be a dead end.”

Techstars Demo Day allows member companies to pitch their businesses after working in residence at Techstars. Only 10 companies were accepted this summer from more than 700 that applied for the program, which comes with 13 weeks of in-residence training and mentoring, along with $18,000 in seed capital, Techstars Managing Director Troy Henikoff said.

Dollard Carey, a member of Hyde Park Angels and retired president of SmithBucklin, said he has been coming to the Demo Day since 2010. He sees the event as a chance for investors to find investments and for the broader financial community to support risk-takers.

“There are a lot of key people in the startup community here, and they are very supportive of these founders,” Carey said. “That’s a key element for any startup environment.”